Disney lets child molester employee escape

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Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
This is horrible. I've never been on a cruise but was thinking about it, as it seemed to be one of the few places you could let a tween go off on their own safely. This shatters that notion.

Must edit to add... I just realized that the grandmother was THERE. Shame on her for belittling this.
No such place on the planet exists. Kids and adults are at risk every second of their lives no matter where they are. Some places are less dangerous than others, but no place is 100% safe.
 

tracyandalex

Well-Known Member
It seems the incident was still being investigated on board around the time the ship was due to leave port. Can DCL postpone departure to complete their investigation and include local authorities or does that bump up against other rules/ laws and such?
 

wdwstateofmind

Well-Known Member
It seems the incident was still being investigated on board around the time the ship was due to leave port. Can DCL postpone departure to complete their investigation and include local authorities or does that bump up against other rules/ laws and such?
Pretty sure since it happened at sea (international waters) that local authorities will not get involved unless Disney requests it...
 

nytimez

Well-Known Member
I think several of you are missing a key fact. This did not happen at sea. This happened at port - at a US port. And the actions were confirmed by a security officer who reviewed the video a full hour before the ship left port.

This is disgraceful behavior on the part of DCL.
 

BoarderPhreak

Well-Known Member
Im not surprised he just slipped away. Cruise lines don't want to deal with any crimes onboard.
Bingo.

There are a LOT of assaults on cruise ships but unless there's a body or a bunch of witnesses - you'll never hear about it. Crimes onboard are one of the "dirty little secrets" of the industry; it's not just a DCL thing nor are they immune to it. They'll do anything to keep this sort of bad PR on the DL.
 

Skyway

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So let's get this straight it was essentially 4 hours between incident and containment.

Actually, it looks like it was only an hour and 24 minutes between the crime being reported and the suspect being identified. That is fast.

The problem is that it took Disney another THREE hours to detain their own uniformed crew member on board a ship.

Even if it was too late (and too costly?) to hold the ship back from its departure 12 minutes after identifying the bad guy, it sounds like Florida police had the authority and ability to intercept and board the ship out at sea. But they weren't told there was a problem.

So either Disney was completely incompetent by failing to report the crime that occurred in the US, or they knew exactly what they were doing to avoid media reports of an employee being arrested for molesting a guest (uh-oh. The media found out anyway)

No one should fault Disney for hiring this guy. I'll trust that they did a background check and he came up clean. The problem is that when the next cruise line hires him, he'll continue to have a clean criminal background, thanks to Disney. And if a uniformed crew member is sick enough to attack a child in an elevator that he had to know was surrounded with cameras, what else could he be capable of?
 

wdwstateofmind

Well-Known Member
I think several of you are missing a key fact. This did not happen at sea. This happened at port - at a US port. And the actions were confirmed by a security officer who reviewed the video a full hour before the ship left port.

This is disgraceful behavior on the part of DCL.
I didn't know. I saw the story two nights ago on some Orlando station and they made it seem like it happened at sea...
 

DisneyDebRob

Well-Known Member
Disgusting. What I can't wrap my mind around is that he did it in full view, never bothered to try to hide himself. I mean his back was to the hallway. I realize it happened quickly but how I wish someone would have come up behind him and deck him. Makes me believe that he has done this before for some reason. Just my 2 cents.
 

nytimez

Well-Known Member
I didn't know. I saw the story two nights ago on some Orlando station and they made it seem like it happened at sea...

OP's link has a timeline and everything. Down to the minute, so I'm guessing it was logged by the ship's security officer. Also, has DCL on record claiming they contacted police while still in port. Until the police say they were not contacted at all -- whoops! DCL had to take that back as well. Then DCL said they didn't know about it until the next day. Now, we find they know about it immediately.

This is ugly handling all around.

On the other hand, it looks like front-line people were fast and efficient and quick to deal with it. The security officer immediately reviewed the tape and confirmed the girl's story -- seems to me further action was blocked at a higher level.

Was it just poor communication on the ship? Or could it be that someone didn't want police cars and TV cameras in front of a Disney ship in a US port?

I have my theories. I'm sure others will have theirs.
 

nytimez

Well-Known Member
Holy cow - I didn't even see the second page of the story, which contains this detail of what happened in the Bahamas:

The suspect was removed from the ship and taken to an airport, where Disney arranged for his passage back to India, his home country. The company said it paid his expenses, honoring a standard contract provision to cover transportation costs of employees returned to their home nations.
 

sublimesting

Well-Known Member
Holy cow - I didn't even see the second page of the story, which contains this detail of what happened in the Bahamas:

The suspect was removed from the ship and taken to an airport, where Disney arranged for his passage back to India, his home country. The company said it paid his expenses, honoring a standard contract provision to cover transportation costs of employees returned to their home nations.
Yeah except for the attack itself that makes me maddest of all. What poor decision making all around.. EVERYONE screwed up except the poor girl.
 

Disneykidder

Well-Known Member
Why is this now resurfacing after 9 months? The poor child. Her grandmother...there are many names for her but I cannot say them because I am a lady. Shameful is one I can use.

There are no places in the world where I would ever leave my children unattended.
 

backinaction

Well-Known Member
With all the negative publicity surrounded the cruise industry these days, I'm sure Disney is going to take a big hit here. They handled this situation very poorly. I find it sickening that Disney actually paid for this scum to get back home. This one was def swept under the rug and I hope Disney's protocol changes immediately for these types of situations. There is a special place in hell for that sick .
 
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